I`m a nice guy

I stopped at my local market after a hard week at work this late afternoon.

I usually post my distraction essay on Fridays, but had a heavy work schedule this week.

I`m self employed & have been for thirty plus years around the world.

When I got to the market, I was distracted by these offensive images.

I went & parked my truck & approached the people manning this little booth & confronted them about their disgusting display.

Being simply a DOFH(dirty old fucking hippy) they seemed to simply try & laugh me off.

I told them I would be back within 20 minutes to take photographs of them & their display, which was met with more derisive chuckles.

At that point, a man in a blue cap, (he is in the images) walked by & told me, he was proud that at least someone was in their respective faces.

He wondered how the market could allow this.

I told him it was a ‘Free Speech’ issue.

He was quite surprised at that.

I had him follow me into the market, (a quite large Pavilion , btw) to confront the manager, a person I`m familiar with, who is also likewise with me.

He stated, as I had told the “blue cap guy” that the market was powerless, because the property outside the market was public space, & free speech rules applied, but that the market did non endorse the ‘petitioners’ outside.

Within 15 mins. I was back with my camera, & announced my return.

I immediately noticed that these three men, moved out of the picture frame.

I told them to please move closer together so their “moms” could have a shot of them with Adolf Obama in the frame, since I was going to post the images of them online today.

I eventually shamed them into the frame.

I may seem mellow recounting this but I was stopping passersby & asking them if the Adolf Obama poster offended them.

Almost all were disgusted, but some may not have “glommed onto ” or “Grokked” the idea.

I kept shaming them into getting into the frame by arguing that if their “health care” argument was so persuasive, they shouldn`t have to revert to vile caricatures, nor depictions of Obama.

That started the Obamabot argument.

I asked them if they were here now, where had they been for the last eight years at “my” market.

The next part was that I didn`t have a sense of humor, so I told them that I was also a “stand-up comic”.

I told them their dismissiveness (of me) was really a true measure of their lack of commitment to their cause,(whatever it was besides being offensive)

Oh Oh! here comes a lowrider with four “Brothers” (I won`t call them “OG`s since I`m not a profiler, but I moved to their car, & asked them for an opinion.

They mentioned, “you mean those fools with the Nazi Obama, we`re cruising to do a “drive-by on them”.

I instinctively knew there would be no shooting, so I told them to not use that terminology,”Please”.

The carload of “gangsters” laughed at my comment, both knowing we both knew who we were, & familiar with our status, in the eyes of outsiders.

I kept stopping people going in & out of the market & asking them to comment.

I know most of the people in the area, & if I don`t know them, they know me, (or about me)

These three guys are now demanding that I do a stand-up routine, but as Jon Stewart said,”I`m nobodies` monkey.

This transpired throughout maybe 20 minutes.

(that means I`m real pissed off). IOW`s I usually don`t have time for “morans”

A lady comes out of the market & says, “Tony, are you doing a story on these idiots for the local paper?”

I told her, what a great addition to my purpose, but would you please tell the aforementioned idiots how you know me.

Her name is Justine, & she told these “guys” that 30 years ago at this same location where she had a kiosk, that I`d bought roses for everyone working in the area, that didn`t get time off to serve customers who needed their services,

She told them, (& I blush) that the last person they should ever hope to be dismissive of was me.

Justine knows some of my other secrets.

So in closing, I have not had time to prepare my “Distractions” that I so love to offer all of you here, but was so distracted by these offensive images, at my own market, (we are possessive aren`t we) that I spent my time elsewhere, (here)

In lieu of those usually posted distractions, see if you can find me in the background of these images.

Have a great weekend, & I`m always in the background,, Yelling Louder.

Shamed into stupid,(for his mom)

The large guy in black with “evil horns” finally opened up a bit but shame will do that.

If your argument is that good, make it merit, not on offensive imagery.

A (Lavey) Satanist I knew once complained to me that people didn’t treat him well if they noticed the 2-inches-in-diameter upside down pentagram he was wearing around his neck. He started in with this rant about “freedom of religion” and “equality” and stuff.

This particular Satanist prided himself on his intellect. His world was all about “I’m ok, and you’re not ok unless I say so.”

I responded by asking him if he would think it was stupid if he walked through Penn Station naked wearing nothing but $100 bills scotch taped to his ass. Would he think the people in Penn Station were mean if they started laughing, or ripping off the $100 bills? Then I asked him what he expected by wearing the Christian version of nothing but $100 bills scotch taped to his ass?

Living in rural “he eats babies and is gonna take your guns!” Missouri, I see a lot of this crap. Mostly it’s self applied lettering on the back of pickups trying to convince me that liberal is a bad word, and not so much in front of the stores like this.

I just laugh loudly at most of these “Fox fools” these days.

If asked what’s so funny, then I’ll point out their paranoia and maybe suggest medical treatment.

The guy flying his confederate flag in his front yard up the road since November does still get my freely speaking middle finger occasionally though. Hmmmm, I wonder what his message is?

As for nice guy, I’ll never argue otherwise! The cacti have been potted.

It’s for events like this one that I have a very special program in my law practice. Put simply, if I really like what you did to get arrested and charged, I do the defense work for free. It’s my way of saying, “Nicely, done, Knucklehead!”

I, for one, am not surprised that YOU reacted as you did — nope, not at all. I kinda’ have always imagined that’s the way you are! You don’t let the “grass grow” so to speak — I am totally in agreement with that. I, myself, have been quite reactionary in certain circumstances and do not REGRET it for one minute to this day. WE need to feel good about ourselves and there are just some incidences we can’t walk away from — we have to try, we have to try to call it out for what it is. Doing differently would only serve to haunt our consciences! I only have, maybe, two episodes in my life where I reflected and wished, no matter the circumstances, I had done differently. (BTW, both were connected to getting to work on time. But, even still, I regret that I did not obey my heart!)

Kudos to you, Knucklehead — had I been in the circumstances, I may well have joined you!

You did good. You camera is a lens on the world and you used it to show a side that while not beautiful exists and has power to turn the world ugly. Thank you for showing us this. Thank you for standing up to this. If there were more people who did not pass it by, who focused their lens on what is considered ‘free speech’, and said what you have both through your art here and you voice perhaps we would not as a society foster hatred and ignorance and call it freedom. Take a shower and some pictures of nature and know you faced what needed to be faced.

we have a group of rabid xtians called “you can run but you cannot hide” that offer to pump your gas for a donation here in my small town.

They have cool looking cars with flames all over them – and the flames are all about hell. Their organization is supposed to be a youth ministry. But they’re a third wave group – very wacked out stuff – god warriors – and it’s a scam.

They appear at public high schools to talk about drugs and gangs and for a rap concert. But one of the band members turns into a demon with smoke and sound, where he’s smited by the lead singer. the concert ends, then the kids are broken up into groups by gender to talk about the evils of sex and how the devil is right here in this school.

What I have done is asked the owner of the gas station if they knew what this group is about, and they say “Yes, they’re here to try to help kids”. I asked them not to have the group back. Then they were back. When the kids ask me if they can pump my gas, I politely tell them to bugger off. This doesn’t seem like enough.

So this fall when they come back, I’d like to be like you. But would pictures and a diary do it? Anybody have any ideas on this?